Delhi’s civic agencies were busy passing the buck even as a garbage mound collapse led to two deaths at the Ghazipur landfill in the National Capital on Friday. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) which manages the landfill says that it should not be blamed for Friday’s incident. The municipal body claims that it has been asking the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for additional land for a landfill for the last 15 years but have not received another piece of land for the purpose. The DDA has similarly denied any responsibility for Friday’s loss of life, the capital’s prime land holding body claims that numerous offers have been made, but each of the sites chosen has been rejected by either environmentalists, courts or residents. The agency has now made an offered a piece of land at Ghonda Gujral in Wazirabad, according to an Indian Express report.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s pollution watchdog, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has said that the EDMC has been issued multiple notices over the landfill, but all of them have been ignored. The Ghazipur landfill and solid waste are managed by the EDMC’s Department of Environment Management Services (DEMS). DEMS officials have told the Indian Express that they have been asking for additional land ever since the landfill crossed the 20-metre mark and was no longer considered safe. The officials added that they have been trying to control waste since then. The Ghazipur landfill had been commissioned in 1984, it has been overflowing since 2002 and has been operating without certification for close to 11 years, as per the report.

Delhi produced 10,000 tonnes of garbage every day and of this 2,500 tonnes is produced in East Delhi and is sent to Ghazipur landfill and was not designed in accordance with the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000. The DDA has found 14 locations for landfills in the last 15 years, but all of them have been found unsuitable, IE reported.